Wanted For Murder

This film is a moderately entertaining suspense film from 1946, directed by Lawrence Huntington. It concerns a serial killer in London who has been strangling young woman. Early on we learn that the killer is a respectable businessman, Eric Portman, who is haunted by his ancestor, a hangman from Victorian times, who has a wax statue in Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors.

As long as the plot focuses on Portman and his increasing madness, Wanted for Murder is intriguing, but alas it frequently slips into melodrama, particularly with a subplot involving a woman Portman has fallen for (Dulcie Gray), who has thrown him over for a stolid bus conductor (Derek Farr). They share a scene in a restaurant where they declare their love for each other, even though they've only known each other for a few days, that could have been lifted from a Harlequin romance.

Better stuff comes from the actors who play the Scotland Yard detectives. Roland Culver is the sharp-minded inspector who gets on to Portman after the latter's handkerchief is found near a victim. Stanley Holloway, who would later be indelible as Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady, provides comic relief as a dogged sergeant.